This isn’t strong enough for a Pit rant; it’s more of a “ponderable.” I’m pondering some things more and more every semester that I teach community college students:
Some of my fellow profs and I have been commiserating about a great number of our students who never should have taken the class in the first place, have extremely poor skills, don’t take advantage of tutoring or other helpful services for various reasons, miss classes or show up to them late, don’t get assignments in on time or at all.
We hand back assignments with a zero or “F” on it, and all they do is smirk and giggle as if it’s funny. Where I teach, they have less than two weeks left to drop and take a W for withdrawal, but the majority of them will not do this. They’ll stay in, even though it is darn near impossible for them now to pass the class with a low C. We don’t do much by way of extra credit, so it’s not as if they can make up for all the deficiencies that way.
So they’ll get to the end of the semester and wind up with a D or F and just have to take the course over again. What’s the point?
Oh, I know it’s their money to waste–or their parents’ money. I know they can make their own decisions and choose their behaviors. I know I will get paid no matter what. I just wonder why there is such a “disconnect” between what they want (a passing grade and a few units on the way to graduation) and what they are achieving (very little). They are wasting their time and ours.
And do they realize that they could be placed on academic probation or suspension if they continue the downward spiral? I doubt it.
It seems to get worse every year, and I have a feeling that it isn’t any better at the universities.
Well, I am not in college so I do not have that money lingering thing, but if I fail tests I find it hillarious. Same with my friends. I have no idea, it is just funny. We also congratulate the lowest score. Just one of those things we are lighthearted about I suppose.
I’m surprised they can drop with a ‘W’ so late into the class. Both community college and state college had me forced to stay in the class after the first 2 weeks or so; after that I would get an ‘F’ if I dropped. Because of this, I had to be very careful about what classes I chose- sometimes I would pick something that was over my head, or simply required too much time outside of class which I couldn’t provide because of work and other commitments. It was a real drag when I wouldn’t figure out how friggin difficult the class would be until halfway through it, though unlike the mouthbreathers you mention I worked my ass off to pass if I was having a hard time, and even if I only had a .05% chance of getting a passing grade, you damn better believe I did everything I could to try just the same. At that point, I have nothing to lose- if I give up, I’ll fail the class. If I try, I might fail, but I might succeed. And when I tried genuinely hard, I nearly always came through despite the odds.
Perhaps these students have become cynical and lost self-confidence in their abilities. They may be unwilling to listen to feedback and advice, thinking they can do well their ‘own way’ even when they need help badly. I’m not trying to blame the victim here, but the fact that they can punch out so late in the game just encourages them to be lazy- if they didn’t have a lot of leeway when it came to failure, they would either improve, or leave.
I teach high school and I see the same reactions. A lot of it is false bravado, being upset is uncool, plus they didn’t really try so they expected to fail, har har! For others, they simply don’t value the education they’re being offered. I’m not sure which group makes me want to throttle them the most.
They don’t want to be there. They’re there because they’re “supposed” to be there, or because they “have” to be there or some other excuse. So they don’t give a damn if they pass or fail or get no grade at all.
[oldfarthat] ON
When I was in college, we had a marvelous inducement to study and keep our grades up. It was called “the draft.”
A friend of mine who was a TA for a beginning-level physics class absolutely loved this reaction (he especially loved to derail people’s hopes of premed or prelaw).
To be sure, the test wasn’t overly difficult - it was appropriate for the class level. The only underhanded thing I recall he ever did was hand back a test that like 65% of the class failed and then had a pop quiz the next class where even more people failed (from not studying).
How can you study for a ‘pop’ quiz? I thought the idea of a pop quiz was that you didn’t know it was coming. Though obviously you should be going over your notes regularly anyway…
I’m in college right now. I haven’t seen anyone really laughing at their low marks but there are a few people I can pick out as being there for nothing. They just surf the net, chat on MSN or whatever. One of them even calls me asking for homework help, or rather hoping that I do her homework for her. Nu uh.
I’m actually there to learn and I pay attention in class whereas the others (not all, but some) seem to be paying an awful lot of money for a laptop and internet.
[QUOTE=Flutterby]
How can you study for a ‘pop’ quiz? I thought the idea of a pop quiz was that you didn’t know it was coming. Though obviously you should be going over your notes regularly anyway…QUOTE]
Studying being an integral part of being a student, tests or not.
Wow. When any of my students think they are in danger of failing, they’re as serious as a heart attack. Of course, they’re paying about $30,000 a year for the privilege of failing my class (among others.)
Wow. I took an inorganic test (undergrad). It was 100 points with 20 bonus points. I got a 51% and was the median, half did better and half did worse. I used to think I was smart. Low was a 21%, high was a 90%.
I once had a class with a teacher who would give tests with 13 questions of 7 points each. Rather than work with a base 91 for his scoring, he gave us 9 points for putting our names and the date on the top of the page. Bear in mind that the date was already printed on the test, we only had to copy it, and, hopefully, we could all remember our own names.
One of my classmates got a 4.5 on one test. He knew none of the answers, and he copied the date wrong! That was a laughable failure.
Incubus, I’m also at a loss as to why the drop deadline is so late in the semester, considering that we started back in mid-August. It’s past the halfway mark now and this is an 18-week semester.
Ashes, I’m afraid you may be right, at least in regard to some of them. About the others…well, I have an awful lot of international students whose abilities are far below what they should be for the courses I teach, but absolutely every one of them is convinced that they belong in these classes. I sense a “fast track” mentality at work here (and not just for international students), with people who want to rush through college, get those units, grab that degree, and get the hell out.
I just know what I’m going to be hearing come late November/early December:
“community college”! There is your answer. Just a place to hang till the bars open. You don’t see this shit in Nevada. (because the bars are always open)
He He!
Posted by Arrogant Gatopescado: Pround Graduate of a Major University. Where he partied all the time. :rolleyes: )
This is why I love my school. I go to a nice private ladies college. The school has designed an accelerated, Saturday only schedule for women returning to school. At 24, I’m one of the youngest in my class. We only have a class for 6 weeks, 5 hours each Saturday. Then, we start new classes. The women in my class are very dedicated. I just got home from a 5 hour tutoring session. It’s so weird that I’m tutoring a 37 year old woman who has so much more life experience than I do. She’s terrified of failing the class even though we only have one paper and one class left. She has a B average right now so there’s not much she can do to fail. Tomorrow, I tutor another student who has a B- average and is also terrified of failing. These women are so dedicated, they see a C as a failing grade. I love these women and my professor. This is so much better than my first attempt at college where I was surrounded by other 18 year olds who were having fun spending their parent’s money.
Probably false bravado as others have said. People laugh at bad events, its part of the coping process and probably healthier than an anxiety attack.
I’m sure alot of them don’t understand that they may fail. Alot of people know they only need a C- (or D- in some classes) to pass and never take the class again so why not laugh about it?
I usually get the “Oh, well” attitude rather than laughter.
My favorite reaction: I caught a student plagiarizing, and thus was going to fail him for the entire course. When we were done meeting about this, he asked “Does this mean that I don’t have to take the final?” You’re failing the class and THAT’S what you care about?!?
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